College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

Thanks so much for this Jim! It makes perfect sense! Fascinating.

I was addicted to opiates before I really got into Crowley and kicked before seriously devoting my life to my Thelemic practice. Funnily enough, the spiritual side of 12 step support groups really got the ball rolling for me and Thelema. I was a daily opiate user on and off for seven years with habits extending well beyond years. Several of my best friends are dead including one I thought I would marry someday. To say that quitting opiates (and maintaining abstinence) is difficult is a gross understatement but to imply kicking an addiction as a prerequisite to real mysticism is a joke.

While I would never have been able to stop using opiates without some profound spiritual realization that made me understand my existence in a different way, the idea that it is necessary is absurd. What I gained from kicking my habit was the ability to adapt to and cope with my life. Something of this nature could easily happen via the traumatic passing of a loved one or sustaining some serious injury. Life is full of ordeals and we are who we are by how we grow to conquer them. Some live to tell about it and some don't.

I would never wish anyone to have to go through the devastating effects of an addiction, likewise for their families. To focus upon Crowley's addiction is to miss the point entirely, and also to be seduced by the glamour of it (which is never the way it looks in movies or sounds in books). For some reason addiction is romanticized in Western culture and I can tell you from experience, it's a load of shit. A load of shit I bought hook, line, and sinker. If I had known then what I know now... Heroin and opiates to me have really always meant one MAJOR thing and that is A WASTE OF TIME. I'm sure any junky knows exactly what I'm talking about. Watch years of your life disappear while you do NOTHING. What a waste. Of course I learned a lot from it but life has a way of teaching you tough lessons regardless. Better keep the needle out of your arm and spare your loved ones a little grief. Read Crowley's work and practice his techniques for spiritual attainment as he was one of the most sincere seekers I have found but as the chap above said be yourself, not Crowley. I have yet to find a copy of Liber H (I am aware of Liber HHH and it has NOTHING to do with heroin).

It is out of print. I found out about a month ago. The smaller versions of the deck are nearly impossible to find but you might still see the larger deck here and there. The store that told me it was out of print said they had heard there was going to be a new printing of it by US Games soon but they didn;t know exactly when.

No way! My activity has increased ten fold! I've completed a lot of major projects that correspond directly with my magickal work and am busy all the time. I feel a major shift toward increased activity and realization of things that seemed stagnant. Then again Saturn has gone direct after retrograding into virgo and giving me a somewhat second Saturn Return last October so the relief I'm feeling could be attributed to that. All in all, things are finally beginning to gain momentum for me.

@Jim Eshelman said

"In the formal ceremonal system of A.'.A.'., yes, the Malkuth initiation (1=10) is Osirian and the 2=9 initiation is the first ceremonial introduction to the Horus formula. The cross changes to the pentagram.

You can't predict so precisely how this falls with respect to an individual's own soul; but in a formal sense, this is exactly the design.

The cross of the Dying God formula is represented by the cross of the Four Elements, and Yesod then marks the transcendant (planetary) point that changes the cross to the pentagram. In the classic G.D., that "cross of the Elements" was more obviously distributed through the first four numbered grades."

Jim, how then would these changes apply themselves to the grade structure of the T.'.O.'.T.'.? Would it be more or less at the same place but 'at a lower octave' (as I have heard the T.'.O.'.T.'. grades described in reference to the A.'.A.'. grades)? Or would this sort of thing come in the upper grades of T.'.O.'.T.'.?

This is very interesting to read, you guys.

Hee hee hee. This happened to me very early on and it began with Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus trilogy and the number 23. Soon it was popping up EVERYWHERE and at the time I took it to mean that I was correctly following the path of my then budding initiation which was all very new to me. Soon the number 63 appeared everywhere with 23 and as I delved deeper into Gematria and my magickal practice veered more toward Thelema and less from the Chaos paradigm 93 began to show up with 23 and 63. Now 2+3+6+3+9+3 equals 26 so I started to believe that my HGA was again guiding me toward my correct path. Soon enough 666 and 333 were showing up as well and I couldn't look at a clock or a license plate or address without it being one of those numbers and eventually I became numb to the numbers and stopped OVER-analyzing the fact that I was ONLY seeing these numbers. I think it's very easy to read too deeply into seeing these numbers all the time and as Jason Louv so eloquently put it "start shitting yourself every time it's 3:33 on the clock."

Take all of this Gematrial "evidence" with a grain of salt. As you move forward your ability to discern whether or not you are in fact receiving worthwhile information will mature and you will realize that often this "evidence" is perfectly ambiguous. The universe never seems to come right out and give you a "do this" or "don't do this" message. Paying too close an attention to this "evidence" via gematria or whatever won't really get you anywhere unless you are doing very serious work with certain results desired. Just because you're reading a lot about these numbers and all of a sudden they are EVERYWHERE doesn't mean that Choronzon is messing with you but it could lead you to some valuable meditation about the nature of Choronzon or the Abyss and what it means to transcend above the Abyss.

So don't let this kind of stuff mess with you or make you paranoid that dark forces outside of your control are hindering you somehow, the time will come when you are ready to confront the darker aspects of yourself but Choronzon isn't going to jump out when you least expect it. If you've just turned eighteen, you've got a little ways to go before you're ready to start dealing with Choronzon. Crowley himself at the time of The Vision and the Voice (when he was actively invoking Choronzon) was in his thirties and had experienced over a decade over SERIOUS occult practice and study that included reception of Liber AL and Knowledge and Conversation of his HGA and the manner by which he was invoking Choronzon was Enochian Sex Magick. You could of course be invoking Choronzon but I would think that to be VERY foolish. I would say that it's good that you are noticing these little signs around you as it indicates a broadening awareness to the subtleties of your own reality-tunnel but simply treat them as if they are merely indications that you are following the path of initiation. Also, do keep in mind that along the path of initiation, we initiates feel constantly be faced with ordeals that while they will be difficult to get through will shape us toward greater growth. These ordeals serve as a method of purifying us to receive the light of the Divine. If you are experiencing a period of difficulty of late you are likely passing through the Apophis period of the formula IAO and will soon move on into the Osiris phase in which you will rise above your difficulties and move forward in your life as a new person ready to tackle the next set of ordeals. These 333s are not necessarily indicative of Choronzon bearing down on you especially hard nor are they necessarily some kind of "sign." To give them greater meaning beyond that would be a source of unnecessary paranoia and distraction. Hang in there and stay strong in this period of difficulty, you will make it.

Wow Jim, thank you SO much for sharing that link to your commentary on the verses of Liber AL. It is currently blowing my friggin' mind. What was the purpose of this commentary if any? Was it merely to make more apparent the Qabalistic correspondences of Liber AL or was it part of a greater commentary that you are working on? I noticed most of the dates say 1995, is it still in progress?

Whoa, thanks for dragging this out again, I've recently been puzzling over this as well. can't wait to dissect your essay Jim!

You have likely already visited this link:

(http://user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/staley.htm)

It is to P.R. Koenig's site all about the Typonian O.T.O.. There's actually a wealth of information there including an address for contacting the Typhonian O.T.O.. I have actually read some of IJynx and found he poetry to be pretty cool, full of vivid imagery and while I had read something about it's relation to the "Nightside" the poems that I read didn't seem to resonate too much with what I'd read of Nightside magick.

All that I've read of nightside magick are Kenneth Grants books. Ol' KG has the reputation around these parts as being slightly cuckoo for co-co puffs and rightly so in my opinion, his books tend to make pretty broad assumptions that for the most part are not accepted by muc h of the Thelemoc community, at least from what I have seen. Still, there are a hell of a read if you can get your hands on copies of them.

More recently Jason Louv's Ultraculture Journal One has a brief essay upon his experience with nightside magick. Personally, I've never found the whole Nightside bit to be very appetizing but I guess it takes all kinds.

My fault, I did not mean to sound like an asshole and I actually HAVE NOT read the booklet that comes with the Thoth deck so I don't know about the white border thing. Again I apologize as I had no intention of sounding as much like a prick as I did above.

The unicursal hexagram is not a Tarot card. You sound as if you are a little new to this. You ought to pick up a copy of the Book Of Thoth and Crowley's Thoth Deck and do a little research.

Now as to having read many books on the Tarot, could we be exaggerating a bit eh? Certainly someone who had read many books on the Tarot would understand that just because something has symbolic significance does not make it a Tarot card; or at least would have a basic understanding of what the Tarot is. Please forgive me, I do not mean to condescend or patronize.

As for the Unicursal Hexagram, that sucker's all over the place, but Liber Reguli which can be found in Crowley's Book Four tome should suffice in giving you a little better understanding of it. Hell, any book on Crowley's magick.

@Jim Eshelman said

" But I do think that the most compelling and primal one for him is that he felt that nothing holy could come from someone like Kelly; and, especially in response to the (to Case) morally repugnant alleged recommendation of the Enochian entities that Dee and Kelly sometimes share their wives, everything that come from that source must be suspect at best, and most likely malginant.
"

Ha, I was just reading something about Kelly himself also being suspicious if the motives of the Enochian entities, that they were often insulting to him.

It sounds as if Paul Foster Case was kind of uptight. Did he have sort of the puritanical sexual morals of an uptight Xtian englishman? Is the divide between Thelema and BOTA only a moral one though, I can't help but get the feeling that PFC's magickal experience led him to believe that Thelemites were screwing with things that people shouldn't be screwing with. Was it simply Enochian or was the Goetia bad news as well? Could it possibly have been because he felt Crowley's adaptations of GD material weren't valid?

Ah, I appreciate it Ankh! I figured this had been discussed before but neglected to search, thanks!

Lately, I have been reading about Enochian magick and I must admit some kind of morbid fascination with PFC's "rejection" of the Enochian techniques from BOTA's curriculum. What is the reason for this?

I have read conflicting reports about the "dangers" of Enochian magick and also (from the far side) of how Enochian magick is going to be employed by the Antichrist from St. John's Revelation to bring about global apocalypse. Is this the reason for it's exclusion from the BOTA curriculum given, as stated above, that BOTA is from a Gnostic Xtian standpoint? Or is what I've read a load of nonsense?

One more question: why would members of BOTA treat Thelema so sourly? Does this really come down to a mere disagreement of Tarot attributions gone horribly awry or are there more maleficent reasons for the divide between these schools of thought?

OMG! This EXACT same thing has been happening to me ALL THE TIME lately! Though I'm not practicing the MP I can't walk around my apartment or come in contact with another human being without getting a shock from it! It's been happening for two weeks and it's gotten so bad I hesitate before I touch anything metal and am ALWAYS shocked! Weird. I know that's not much of a post but I had to say something, it's been driving me CRAZY.

@PatchworkSerpen said

"It seems to me as if the Law of Thelema ought to be 'Do what thou wilt is the whole of the Law.'"

Well it is: "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." Chapter 3 Verse 60.

Now aside from being a smart-ass, I do see your point. I have always personally felt that the universe must always follow the one and TRUE Will, how could it not? How could anything that happens not be meant to happen or not be true? Even if that meant that individuals hadn't found their True Wills in their particular incarnation their NOT finding it must be a facet of the Greater True Will.

WOW! Tamara....WOW! Thanks so much, this is great.

Man that Khephra man with the beetle head is CREEEEEEEPY!

But SO AWESOME!!!

In terms of natal charts, check out solunars.net . It's a sidereal astrology board run by our very own super-magus Jim Eshelman himself! The free natal charts on the web out there are mostly tropical, and tropical astrology is completely inaccurate as it does not take into account the procession of the equinoxes. On the Solunars forum there is even a place where you can request your own sidereal natal chart and you'll get it rather quickly too! It is an AMAZING resource brimming with information, you'll get lost in there . Check it out.

Cool, thanks for the reassurance Jim. And it makes sense as well as the numeration for 0 through 10.

Yeah, Grant is kind of a nut huh? I must admit that I have a great time reading his books, though in Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God there were even some instances when I noticed mistakes that he had made. They don't spring to mind right now but on a couple of occasions I went: 'Wait, that's not right!' Still they are exciting to read in spite of their mistakes.

Still though, what of Dion Fortune's misgivings with Crowley's system? Was it that she was inexperienced with the methods of Thelema? She is someone who's writings I have always held in deep respect though she does often seem at odds with Crowley.

Also, does Crowley's system involve evoking the Qliphoth as a means of mastering them to become of Master Magickian? This seems plausible to me; where is it in regard to the Thelemic canon that a magickian takes this task on?